


after

by drunknpylades



Series: edge of memory [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 02:58:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13561278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunknpylades/pseuds/drunknpylades
Summary: After the events of the campaign in D2 Edge maybe has a tiny breakdown. His Ghost is concerned and calls in someone much more qualified to deal with the situation.





	after

A printed record of recordings from GHOST012191 Codename:CETUS

 

**[Entry 1]** Guardian has somehow climbed to highest point of the new tower without causing further harm to themselves or others.

 

**[Entry 1.1]** Amendment to last entry: Guardian has exacerbated previous injuries and now has three broken ribs instead of the previous two broken and a single cracked rib. This unit is urging the Guardian to cease his pursuit of any higher altitude without first seeking medical attention. 

 

**[Entry 1.2]** Guardian has ceased his climb and is now unmoving in the middle of the staircase roof. Position is spread eagle and...laughing? This reaction does not seem appropriate for the current state of affairs. 

 

**[MESSAGE TO ALL GHOSTS FROM UNIT CETUS]** Guardian is currently immobile and injured yet showing signs of mirth. Please advise if common behavior. Not common for GuardianDesignation:EDGE

 

**[REPLY FROM GHOST01000001]** Do not move from current position. GuardianDesignation:Cayde-6 is enroute.

 

“Guardian?”

Edge throws an arm over his face and feels an inappropriate giggle bubble up in his throat. He chokes on it for the briefest moment before the sound spills over and suddenly he can’t stop himself. Laughter trickles past his lips like water over stones and he just. Can’t. Stop. 

 

Countless Guardians dead or Lightless. Civilians dead or missing. The Tower diminished and the City in ruins. Yet he can’t stop laughing. Broken bones grind together and the pain in his body rolls around with an altogether different pain even deeper in his chest.

 

“Edge?”

 

He reaches out blindly with the arm not hiding the shame leaking from his eyes, and thank god he has a Ghost that understands him. Cetus is there immediately, fitting himself into the palm of Edge’s hand so he can pull the Ghost in tight against his chestplate. 

 

A sob catches on the jagged emotions he’s still not letting himself feel and when Edge finally speaks his voice sounds like broken glass.

 

“I’m sorry,” he’s not even sure who he’s talking to at this point. The friends still missing that he refuses to believe are gone. The people lost because he didn’t work fast enough. Or to Cetus themself for being saddled with a Guardian that can’t seem to get the hang of how emotions work. 

 

Cetus chirps at him and stays blessedly silent. 

 

Unfortunately someone else decides to break the calm.

 

“If you make me climb up there with only one arm I’m going to go find my old one, pry it out from under whatever dead Red Legion bastard shot it off, and beat you with it.”

 

Edge makes a perverted sound of something halfway between a laugh and another sob. 

 

“Should I have warned you he was coming? I wasn’t satisfied with your mental state.” Cetus hums under his hand.

 

Part of him wants to be frustrated that his Ghost did the equivalent of tattling on him and yet the sound of Cayde’s voice does something to the roiling tension in his gut. He lifts his arm from his face and frowns at his Ghost. “I’ll let it go this once. But only because of extenuating circumstances.”

 

Cetus beeps at him and rolls his little camera optic before darting out from under his hand. The fact that the little guy can do anything at all is still a blessing and Edge will not think about what he would have done if things had gone differently on the Tower all those weeks ago. His Little Light has come to mean so much more to him than just a convenient means of getting around death. 

 

“I mean it! I’m pretty sure I know right where it is! Don’t make me send another baby hunter down into that mess to go get it.” Cayde sounds annoyed and ready to pick a fight but Edge knows him too well. The Exo is worried. 

 

Rolling to his feet Edge drags his arm across his eyes to get rid of any kind of evidence of the slip in his emotional stability. The movement pulls at his broken ribs and he hisses between his teeth. 

 

“Are you sure I can’t try again to heal you fully?” Cetus asks. The Ghost spins nervously around his head, scanner running over him from head to toe. “There are more injuries than previously catalogued and I wish to-”

 

Edge bats at him playfully and nudges Cetus away from him. “Later. Don’t think I didn’t hear the way your processors where whirring after getting me away from Gaul. Make sure you’re back in form before trying to heal anything. I’d hate for something to go wrong.”

 

It may have sounded like he was worried for himself to anyone that didn’t know him, but Edge trusts Cetus to know what he’s really saying. He just doesn’t want his Ghost to overwork himself trying to do something that Edge himself just doesn’t see as necessary.

 

With a little wink to Cetus, Edge leans over the railing to look down at where Cayde, true to form, is standing with one hand on his hip and looking at the wall in front of him like he can will stairs into the material through sheer mental strain alone. 

 

“Something I can help you with, Vanguard?” Edge asks. It’s clear he’s not getting out of this without some kind of capitulation but he doesn’t have to make it easy. 

 

Cayde just narrows his eyes and looks around briefly before seeming to come to a decision. “Yeah, get down here so I can make sure you’re still in one piece.”

 

Edge blinks. He hadn’t been expecting something that blunt and he finds himself vaulting the railing and dropping down hard at Cayde’s side before he really has time to think about what he’s doing. 

 

The landing jars his ribs and what seems like every other scrape or bruise he got from that final fight and Edge clenches his jaw around a cry of pain. His teeth creak against the force of holding back his weakness and suddenly everything kind of swims in front of him. Cayde’s face blurs out of focus and Edge feels the world tilt to one side. 

 

Suddenly there’s a hand on his hip and everything snaps back into focus, the sound of alarm from Cayde serving as a catalyst to getting his senses back under control. 

 

“You still with me, Guardian?” Cayde asks. “Don’t think I’d be able to carry you anywhere at the moment.” He waggles the little stump of his right arm and Edge feels that inappropriate laughter trying to claw its way out of him again. 

 

Instead he forces it down and pitches forward to drop his forehead against the Exo’s shoulder. They’re usually not so public, but he can’t bring himself to care, and there’s not really anyone around at the moment. There are more important things to be doing and here he is clinging to his sanity and Cayde in equal measure just hoping neither one slips through his fingers. 

 

Cayde seems at least willing to indulge him for now because the hand on his hip slides around his waist and tugs him in a little closer. 

 

“Okay,” Cayde’s voice is soft, a small fragile thing that drifts across Edge’s ear like the ghost of promises they never say to each other. “It’s all okay.”

 

And for once Edge can make himself believe that it is. 


End file.
